Sold the 98 OB when we bought the Honda Odyssey. Sold the 90 Leg when the Head started to leak (190K miles). I'm looking for a 02 or newer. What year did Subaru resolve the HG proplems? I want to keep the price below 10k. Thanks

Sold the 98 OB when we bought the Honda Odyssey. Sold the 90 Leg when the Head started to leak (190K miles). I'm looking for a 02 or newer. What year did Subaru resolve the HG proplems? I want to keep the price below 10k. Thanks

 

Supposedly they fixed the hg problem in 03 so anything 03 or newer but I don't have any experience with this yet

03 was tossed around for a long time and i regurgitate that number myself. though i don't know if that year comes from anywhere significant. there have been reports showing head gasket problems on even later years (including from people on here that work in shops and see lots of cars). FWIW the Phase II EJ25 is much nicer than the Phase I by a long shot. Even the head gasket issues are much nicer and not catastrophic like the older ones.

So is 03 the first year of the phase II?

So is 03 the first year of the phase II?

No - 1999 or 2000 (depending on which model) is the beginning of Phase II engines.

Just to add my 2 cents... '03 should be the first FULL year where the HG problem is fixed. Here is a data point to consider though: my '02 OBW was made in either Feb or March of 02 and the "coolant conditioner" recall does not apply to it. Seems to be like the later half of the '02 model should be okay.

 

Good luck in your search!

'03 is the year I heard also, in that from that year on, all engines were built to handle turbo-charging (boost). This beefed up the crankcase, and stopped the headgasket failures. This is only the info that I have heard. Any inacuracy to teh information goes to teh person who told it to me. . .